A Day in Cincinnati

The day after Burke finished finals, we headed down to Cincinnati for the afternoon. We made a stop at IKEA so I could get my stools for my music class.

From there we headed to the Newport Aquarium across the river in Kentucky. McKay was in heaven! He was so fascinated with all the fish and has talked about sharks ever since. It was an AWESOME aquarium. If you ever get the chance to go to Cincy, don't miss the aquarium!

Following the aquarium we caught a Cincinnati Reds game. The stadium was so cool! Luckily we won in the bottom of the ninth (after 10 pm), so we could watch the fireworks (that didn't start until after 11!) and get home (at 2 am). McKay stayed up for the entire game and fireworks show afterwards. Needless to say, he crashed sitting upright in his stroller on the way back to the car.

We had such a fun time and have decided Cincinnati is one of our favorite places we've been.

April Highlights

Since there has been a lot of construction going on around our house (including a year and a half long road widening project down the main drag in town...), McKay has developed a perhaps not-so-healthy obsession for construction trucks. I think we talk about trucks more than anything else at home.

The neighbors behind us abandoned some toy trucks last summer so McKay quickly adopted them for his own when he discovered them this spring. We play outside with the trucks every day.

Easter was simple but fun. McKay was kind enough to share his Easter basket with all of us.

McKay ate his first ice cream cone. He calls it "cone cake." Sometimes he sings "Happy Birthday" when we give him one. We don't really know where the correlation came from, but it's pretty cute.

Towards the end of April, my sister and I started texting one Sunday night. In the course of the conversation she mentioned she was on her way to Nauvoo for the week with some friends. On Monday I told Burke it would be fun to go meet her, and Wednesday night after teaching my music class, I was off for Nauvoo with McKay. We got there Thursday morning, spent the day with my sister and drove home Friday morning. Although I spent 16 hours driving and only 24 hours (almost exactly) with Kathryn, it was totally worth it, and Nauvoo was wet but beautiful.

 We found a frog. McKay was a little unsure of it.

Hawaii!

Hawaii was beautiful. What more can I say? I think we hit all the necessary highlights and had a great time being with my whole family.

Snorkeling (Burke's highlight) and beach hopping, with Burke sporting a huge gash on his finger from some coral: 

 Pearl Harbor:

 

 The Laie Hawaii Temple

 

hike to Manoa Falls:

 

 

 

The Polynesian Cultural Center--the highlight for me:

View from our beach house on the North Shore:

 

 

Not pictured: the Dole plantation, Matsumoto's shaved ice, and our Wii Just Dance dance-off one night. Awesome trip, wish we could go again!